Founded in 2019, Audley Press shares a significant history with voices that defined the artistic aesthetic of the 1980s.
In the mid-1980s, Penguin Random House took the bold move to create a whole new line of pulsing under the banner of Vintage Contemporaries Series. It was a series bold and stylish trade paperback editions of the best of modern fiction. Vintage Contemporaries was home to many of the best, brightest, and most original authors around, including Richard Russo, Raymond Carver, James Crumley, and Jay McInerney. As a reader in the 1980s, seeing the signature style of the books, from the spine to the cover, conveyed a brilliance and voice that was unique to a generation. We knew what the stories said even before we read the words of the novels: they spoke with a voice of decade that had responded against the rise of Reganomics and the vilification of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. These authors responded with strong, nihilistic characters that spoke to the angst of the era with a dark and justified humor.
Audley Press was forged in the light of this ambitious undertaking. Our voices are strong and unique. They are brilliant storytellers who speak in the idiom of today while telling tales that transcend this generation.